Food insecurity is a Canada-wide problem that needs a federal response. We need to advocate for policies that are easy to implement, support people to thrive, and benefit everyone—no matter where in Canada they live.

Our website contains valuable resources about poverty and food insecurity alongside our policy stances.

At Right To Food, our work is driven by a fundamental belief that food is a basic human right. To ensure that this right is realized for all, we are calling on the federal government to:

• commit to reducing food insecurity by 50% by 2030, relative to 2021 levels
• invest in robust income and social policies that address the root cause of food insecurity: poverty
• ensure all policies to address poverty and food insecurity focus on the specific needs of different population groups
• strengthen the social safety net, including Employment Insurance, and affordable housing

We also publish reports based on lived experiences of food insecurity and poverty, like:

• Sounding the Alarm: The Need to Invest in Working-Age Single Adults,
• Building the Case: Poverty and Food Insecurity Among Working-Age, Single Adults in Canada, and
• Beyond Hunger: the hidden impacts of food insecurity.

To learn more about the issues we advocate on, go to our policy resources.

• In developing this tool, we selected socio-demographic, income, and housing factors that are strongly associated with poverty and food insecurity, as demonstrated in existing research.
• Our sources of data and information presented are: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census of Population and 2022 Canadian Income Survey reports and Maytree’s Welfare in Canada, 2022 report.
• Data in some charts may not add up to 100% due to rounding up/down or because data for some groups were excluded.
• Where riding-level data doesn’t exist, we used other data, including provincial/territorial and national.
• Social assistance stats include basic social assistance and shelter costs.

Here are definitions for the key terms we’ve used. For most of these terms, we’ve drawn on Statistics Canada definitions. For detailed definitions, visit the linked sources.

Family This spans married and common-law couples (and any children of one or both partners) and one-parent families. All family members must live in the same dwelling (Statistics Canada, 2023).

Food insecurity People worry about eating, compromise on the quantity and quality of their groceries and/or go without food due to financial constraints (Li et al., 2023).

Household One or more people “who occupy the same dwelling and do not have a usual place of residence elsewhere in Canada or abroad” (Statistics Canada, 2023).

Housing affordability When an individual or household spends 30% or less of their total before – tax household income on shelter costs (Statistics Canada, 2023).

Indigenous status Whether a person identifies with the Indigenous Peoples of northern Turtle Island (now Canada). This includes people who identify as First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit (Statistics Canada, 2023).

People with a disability This category spans people “whose daily activities are limited as a result of an impairment or difficulty with particular tasks” and people diagnosed with a developmental disability (Statistics Canada, 2019).

Poverty The poverty data for this riding is measured using the Market Basket Measure (MBM), which is Canada’s official measure of poverty. The MBM is based on the cost of a specific basket of goods and services (food and other necessities) that represents a modest standard of living (Statistics Canada, 2023).

Racialized population People, other than Indigenous Peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour (Statistics Canada, 2021).